Goodreads meta-data is 200 pages, over-rated 3.74 by 226 litizens.
Genre: krimi, police procedural.
Verdict: a curiosity of the place and time. A forced march to finish it.
Set in the Swiss alps in the early 1930s when radio was a novelty. A local is found dead. Was it suicide or murder? Everyone speaks Schweizerdeutsch in which ‘Chabis’ is an oath.
Not to be confused with Chablis.
Into this isolated mountain top community comes Detective Sergeant Studer from the distant Canton to find out which is which. He takes up residence and observes the locals. The bar owner. The nursery man and his staff. The family of the deceased. Creditors. Trees. Swains. Rivals. That is something like the Maigret approach but the hands of this cuckoo clock are heavier by far. As far as this reader can report no thumbprint figures in the story.
Masochists can find out more than they should know by reading the thirty reviews on GoodReads.
Friedrich Glauser (1896-1938) was diagnosed schizophrenic, addicted to morphine, dabbled with heroin, and was intoxicated when he could not get drugs. He spent most of his life in psychiatric wards, insane asylums, and prisons. That experience makes him well qualified, ahem, as well qualified, as most journalists, to comment on the human condition.
There are two or three other titles with Studer. They are unlikely to be disturbed by this reader.
Skip to content